Deeplinks Blog posts about Transparency

Net Neutrality’s Opponents in Congress Are Determined to Defund, Stall, and Hamstring the FCC

Internet users recently enjoyed a historic victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Open Internet Order was upheld as lawful. The court swatted down every legal argument made by the cable and telephone industries opposed to a free and open Internet. But in the last few weeks, Congress has relentlessly tried to defund, stall, and hamstring the FCC—even though four million Americans spoke out in favor of the FCC using its legal authority to protect a free and open Internet.

You spoke, and the California Legislature listened. We’re happy to report that A.B. 2880 was amended in the State Senate to remove the dangerous sections that EFF and over 25 other organizations opposed. Your messages to the Legislature were vital to this effort.

The prior version of A.B. 2880 that was passed by the State Assembly would have given state government agencies vast new power to assert copyrights and trademarks over government-created work. It also would have added a broad new exemption to the California Public Records Act, the state’s version of FOIA.

Update June 22, 2016: The Senate failed to pass an amendment to expand the FBI's National Security Letter powers and to make the "lone wolf" provision of the Patriot Act permanent; however, the amendment will probably be voted on again soon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell switched his vote to "No" at the last minute so that he may be able to bring up the amendment during future debate.The amendment was included as part of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which will have a final vote on the Senate floor later this week.Tell your Senators to Vote NO on the amendment.

Congress has passed reforms to the Freedom of Information Act, which EFF hopes signals the beginning of a larger overhaul of the transparency law that will mark its 50th birthday in July.

Earlier this year both chambers passed dueling FOIA reform bills. The House passed the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act (H.R. 653) in January, while the Senate approved it's own version – the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 (S. 337) – in March. On Monday, the House approved the Senate bill, which will head to President Obama. He has previously indicated that he would sign it.